Uwa language
Chibchan language spoken in Colombia
title: "Uwa language" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["chibchan-languages", "languages-of-colombia", "languages-of-venezuela"] description: "Chibchan language spoken in Colombia" topic_path: "linguistics" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uwa_language" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Chibchan language spoken in Colombia ::
::data[format=table title="Infobox language"]
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| name | Uwa |
| altname | Tunebo |
| nativename | Uw Cuwa |
| states | Colombia, formerly in Venezuela |
| region | the largest groups live on the northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Boyacá Department |
| ethnicity | U'wa |
| speakers | 3,550 |
| date | 2000 |
| ref | e24 |
| familycolor | American |
| fam1 | Chibchan |
| fam2 | Chibcha–Motilon |
| fam3 | Chibcha–Tunebo |
| lc1 | tnd |
| lc2 | tbn |
| lc3 | tuf |
| lc4 | tnb |
| glotto | tune1260 |
| glottorefname | Tunebo |
| notice | IPA |
| map | U'wa ou Tunebo.png |
| :: |
|name=Uwa |altname=Tunebo |nativename=Uw Cuwa |states=Colombia, formerly in Venezuela |region=the largest groups live on the northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy, Boyacá Department |ethnicity=U'wa |speakers=3,550 |date=2000 |ref=e24 |familycolor=American |fam1=Chibchan |fam2=Chibcha–Motilon |fam3=Chibcha–Tunebo |lc1=tnd|ld1=Angosturas Tunebo/Bahiyakuwa |lc2=tbn|ld2=Barro Negro Tunebo (Eastern Tunebo/Yithkaya) |lc3=tuf|ld3=Central Tunebo (Cobaría/Kubaru'wa & Tegría/Tagrinuwa) |lc4=tnb|ld4=Western Tunebo (Aguas Blancas/Rikuwa) |glotto=tune1260 |glottorefname=Tunebo |notice=IPA |map = U'wa ou Tunebo.png
The Uwa language, Uw Cuwa, commonly known as Tunebo, is a Chibchan language spoken by between 1,800 and 3,600 of the Uwa people of Colombia, out of a total population of about 7,000.
Varieties
There are half a dozen known varieties. Communication between modern varieties can be difficult, so they are considered distinct languages.
Adelaar (2004) lists the living
- central dialects Cobaría and Tegría on the northern slopes of the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy,
- a western group near Agua Blanca in the departments of Santander and Norte de Santander,
- an eastern group at a place called Barro Negro in the lowlands of Arauca and Casanare,
- and the extinct dialect Sínsiga near Chita, Boyacá.
Umaña (2012) lists Cobaría, Tegría, Agua Blanca, Barro Negro.
Berich lists the dialects Cobaría; Agua Blanca (= Uncasía, Tamarana, Sta Marta); Rinconada, Tegría, Bócota, & Báchira
Cassani lists Sínsiga, Tegría, Unkasía (= Margua), Pedraza, Manare, Dobokubí (= Motilón)
Osborn (1989) lists
- Bethuwa (= Pedraza, extinct),
- Rikuwa (Dukarúa, = Agua Blanca),
- Tagrinuwa (Tegría),
- Kubaruwa (Cobaría),
- Kaibaká (= Bókota),
- Yithkaya (= San Miguel / Barro Negro),
- Bahiyakuwa (= Sínsiga),
- Biribirá,
- and Ruba, the latter all extinct
Fabre (2005) lists:
- Bontoca (perhaps the same as the Bókota = Kaibaká cited in Osborn), of the mountains of Guican
- Cobaría, along the Cobaría River
- Pedraza or Bethuwa [= Angosturas?], along the Venezuelan border; extinct
- Sínsiga, in the Guican mountains, recorded from Chita, Boyaca in 1871
- Tegría or Tagrinuwa, along the Cobaría River
- Unkasia, along the Chitiga and Marga rivers (Telban 1988)
Additional names in Loukotka are Manare and Uncasica (presumably a spelling variant of Unkasía/Uncacía), as well as Morcote, of which nothing is known. Manare, at the source of the Casanare, is Eastern Tunebo.
Phonology
Vowel
::data[format=table]
| Front | Back | High | Mid | Low |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
Consonants
::data[format=table]
| Labial | Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labio-velar | Glottal | Nasal | Stop | Fricative | Vibrant | Oral semi-vowel | Nasal semi-vowel |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| :: |
Morphosyntax
Uwa is an ergative–absolutive language with an SOV word order.
Nouns
All isolated verbs end in -a. Nouns can be divided into three groups: personal nouns, verbal nouns, and other. The plurality of a referent is not explicitly marked on a verb; however, it is possible to mark a group of human referents using the -in suffix. Some kinship terms use a different term instead of using the -in suffix (e.g., wacjá ‘son’; sasa ‘sons’). Verbal nouns are derived from verbs by appending -quib (refers to one actor, e.g., yew̃quib ‘he who carries’), -quin (refers to multiple actors, e.g., yew̃quin ‘those who carry’) or -quey (the action, e.g., raquey ‘the coming’, OR the patient of an action, e.g., rojoquey ‘that which is brought’). Other nouns cannot be affixed with the aforementioned suffixes.
There are four case suffixes: ergative, absolutive, genitive and vocative.
The subject of a transitive clause, i.e., the ergative case, is marked with the -at suffix:
| lang = tuf
The subject of an intransitive clause or the object of a transitive clause, i.e., the absolutive case, takes the null suffix -∅:
| lang = tuf | lang = tuf
The owner of a referent is marked with the genitive case using the -ay suffix. It can replace the ergative marker -at in the 1st person singular pronoun of transitive sentences.
| lang = tuf
The vocative suffix -u is used to identify a referent being addressed:
| lang = tuf
Personal pronouns
The personal pronouns distinguish between the 1st, 2nd and 3rd person (which is further divided into proximal and distal), as well as between the singular and plural: ::data[format=table]
| singular | plural | 1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| asa, as | isa, is | |||
| baha, bah | baa | |||
| proximal | uiya | uiyina | ||
| distal | eya, ey | eyina, eyin | ||
| :: |
It is possible to use personal pronouns as possessive pronouns by placing them before the relevant noun (for comparison—adjectives are placed after the noun). However, there exist distinct forms of possessives, which will be discussed later.
The demonstrative pronouns make a two-way distinction: ucha (proximal, ‘this’) and eya (distal, ‘that’).
Additionally, there exists an intensifier-reflexive pronoun that is analogous to the English ‘oneself’ or ‘alone’. The pronoun itself is subject to inflection: ::data[format=table]
| singular | plural | 1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ajmar, amar | ijmár | |||
| behmar | bemar | |||
| ima | imar | |||
| :: |
The possessive pronouns in Uwa, just like the personal pronouns, make a proximal-distal distinction in the 3rd person. These are: ::data[format=table]
| singular | plural | 1st person | 2nd person | 3rd person |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ajáy | isay | |||
| bahay | bay | |||
| proximal | uiyay | uiyinay | ||
| distal | eyay | eyinay | ||
| :: |
Numerals
The Uwa language uses a base-10 (decimal) number system.
Adjectives
In general, adjectives are placed after the noun, although there are instances where they can be placed before it. Nevertheless, the majority of the time, adjectives are utilized in the verbal form:
| lang = tuf | lang = tuf
In noun phrases, the adjective tends to take the -a suffix.
Verbs
Verbs in Uwa language can be divided into the following categories: transitive, intransitive, bitransitive, impersonal, objective clause, auxiliary and copular.
- Intransitive verbs take one argument, with just one participant:
| lang = tuf
- Transitive verbs take two arguments, thus implying two participants:
| lang = tuf
- Bitransitive verbs take three arguments, which means three participants are involved in the action:
| lang = tuf
- Impersonal verbs express involuntary actions or states that befall a person; those include verbs like to bleed, to vomit, to be tired. Due to their inherent non-agentivity, impersonal verbs lack full conjugation.
| lang = tuf
- There are certain verbs that refer to the act of speaking, perceiving, or thinking, and these verbs are often followed by a dependent clause that provides more information about the action. These dependent clauses are called objective clauses. In Uwa, examples of such verbs include séhlw̃anro ‘to think’ and waquinro ‘to say’.
| lang = tuf | lang = tuf
- Auxiliary verbs follow the verb or adjective and carry the tense and mood suffixes. These include: yajquinro ‘to do’, cháquinro ‘to put’, tenro ‘to overcome’, rehquinro ‘to be’, rauwinro ‘to enter’ and óraro ‘to suppose’.
- There is only one copular verb, rehquinro, which comes from the word for ‘to be’.
| lang = tuf | lang = tuf
There are a number of different affixes that can appended to the verb.
The intentional suffixes -in and -n indicate the intention to be fulfilled by the action of the verb. The action occurs in the future.
| lang = tuf
Negation can be marked three ways. Future, ability or obligation, and stative verbs are negated with the word bár. Inability or impossibility is marked with -ajar/-ajat in the main verb and with an interrogative word in the same clause, plus an -i suffix on the focused word of focus. The -ti suffix is used on the main verb:
| lang = tuf
Ability or obligation is indicated in the verb by the suffix -ata. It indicates that something can or must be done. It can also function as a way to express command without using the imperative.
The inability is indicated by appending the suffix -ajar:
| lang = tuf
Four tenses can be distinguished: present, past, immediate past and immediate future. ::data[format=table title=""]
| Tense | Suffix |
|---|---|
| past | -jac/-jec/-joc |
| immediate past | -ira/-iri |
| present | -ca |
| immediate future | -ayquira |
| :: |
The suffixes -ca/-qui and -ya/-yi are used to mark questions in the present and past tenses, respectively.
Adverbs
Adverbs are positioned immediately following the verb:
| lang = tuf
Notes
References
- Alain Fabre, 2005. Diccionario etnolingüístico y guía bibliográfica de los pueblos indígenas sudamericanos.
- Edna R. Headland, 1994. Diccionario Bilingüe Tunebo-Español, Español-Tunebo con una breve gramática tuneba. Ann Arbor: UMI.
- Edna R. Headland, 1997. Diccionario bilingüe: Uw cuwa (Tunebo) - Español, Español - Uw Cuwa (Tunebo) con una grámatica uw cuwa (tuneba). Instituto Lingüístico de Verano.
References
- Adelaar & Muysken (2004:109)
- (1988). "Gramática de la lengua tuneba: morfosintaxis del cobaría". Universidad Católica del Tachira.
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